Product Review: Heel That Pain Heel Seats (Guest Post #1)

Disclosure: I was provided these products from Heel That Pain for the product review; however, all opinions are my own.

Welcome back to another product review for Heel That Pain. Several months back I was approached by Heel That Pain to test a few of their products. Heel That Pain specializes in shoe inserts and cups used to help prevent and reduce conditions such as heel pain and Plantar Fasciitis. You can read my review of the full length heel seats here.

They use a concept know at the Fascia Bar. “The Fascia-Bar technology present in Heel That Pain’s inserts, wraps and splints realigns the plantar fascia ligament to its proper position while providing therapeutic acupressure and cushioning to the heel bone. This combination not only provides rapid relief from pain, but also stimulates the human body’s natural ability to heal itself. In essence, the typical customer experiences progressive recovery with each step they take wearing our patented Fascia-Bar products. Our top orthotic, HTP Heel Seats, has a satisfaction rating of over 90%.”

Because I do not currently have, nor do I want, plantar faciitis, I reached out to several runners in my running group to test the heel seats. Each of these runners currently struggle with plantar faciitis, and are going through treatments of varying levels, so I figured who best to test these than them.

First of all, I am an academic physician who practices evidence-based medicine. The lowest form of evidence is the “testimonial”. I routinely reject them out of hand. So…it is hard to do this, but….

This is my testimonial about the HTP Heel Seats.

Since training for and completing my first marathon in April of 2013 at the age of 57, I battled plantar fasciitis and Achilles tendonitis almost continuously. I would go intermittently for weeks and weeks without running, only cycling and swimming for my “cardio”. I bought pairs of new shoes, used stretching, rolled my foot over frozen bottles of water, tried supportive socks, slept for weeks with a boot at night (to my wife’s chagrin), had massages, and ingested more ibuprofen than I would like to admit. Within days of trying to begin running again, I would find myself waking in the morning and subsequently limping out of the bedroom gritting my teeth and holding onto the dresser to steady myself.

Then I was introduced to these simple blue shoe inserts, the HTP Heel Seats. Honest to Goodness, within a couple of days of continuous wear, my feet no longer hurt. I have been running now for weeks without pain, and building up towards another half marathon. (I think one full was enough). I am not sure I entirely understand it, but they have worked like I never would have expected.

Yep. This is a testimonial. The lowest form of evidence. But it is the best evidence I can personally provide. Try them out “ASAP!”

Mike Southgate
Charleston, South Carolina

I would like to thank Heel That Pain for asking me to review their products, and I hope this has helped others in their consideration shoe inserts.

For more information on specifics on my review of the product, you can contact me at doombuggyrunner@gmail.com. If you are a product manufacturer and would like for me to review your product here on Doombuggy Runner, you can also email me at doombuggyrunner@gmail.com.

MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.